Thirty Sayings: Do Not Move the Boundary Stone
17 Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching. 18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. 19 I teach you today, even you, so that your trust may be in Yahweh. 20 Haven’t I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge, 21 To teach you truth, reliable words, to give sound answers to the ones who sent you? 22 Don’t exploit the poor because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court; 23 for Yahweh will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them. 24 Don’t befriend a hot-tempered man. Don’t associate with one who harbors anger, 25 lest you learn his ways and ensnare your soul. 26 Don’t you be one of those who strike hands, of those who are collateral for debts. 27 If you don’t have means to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you? 28 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone which your fathers have set up. 29 Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings. He won’t serve obscure men. Proverbs 23 1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you; 2 put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. 3 Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food. 4 Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint. 5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky. 6 Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies, 7 for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. 8 You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words. 9 Don’t speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. 10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless, 11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you. 12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge. 13 Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die. 14 Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol. 15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine. 16 Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. 17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear Yahweh all day long. 18 Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.
A new collection begins with a heading, a stated purpose and a count, and its first concern is people who cannot defend themselves.
The style changes again. Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise introduces a new section with its own preface, and the preface says what the material is for and how much of it there is: Haven't I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge, To teach you truth, reliable words, to give sound answers to the ones who sent you? The last phrase suggests men who carry messages and must answer for them. That fits a court or an official household.
The first saying is a prohibition with a reason attached, and the reason is a courtroom: Don't exploit the poor because he is poor; and don't crush the needy in court; for Yahweh will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them. The logic is that the poor man has no advocate, so one is supplied. And the advocate takes the case personally. The same construction returns a few verses later about orphans: their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.
Between them stands the boundary stone, twice. Don't move the ancient boundary stone which your fathers have set up. Fields were marked by stones, inheritances ran with the land, and a stone shifted a few feet in the night transferred property permanently with no witness. It is theft that looks like nothing, committed against someone who may not notice for a season. The second occurrence names the likeliest victim: the fields of the fatherless.
The section then turns to appetite in a scene at a great man's table. When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you; put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. The violence of the image is the point. And the reason is given in the verse after. The food is deceitful food, offered as hospitality and functioning as an obligation.
The warning about wealth is the most vivid in the book. Don't weary yourself to be rich. Then the question — why fix your eyes on what is not there? — and the image: it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky. Money is described as having grown wings and left, in the present tense, while the man is still looking at the place it used to be.
settled What this mark means